Lady Gaga’s Singing In Joker: Folie À Deux Is ‘Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Done Before,’ She Says

State the obvious: Lady Gaga is an astonishing singer. And while her hit-packed back-catalogue speaks for itself, she’s also brought those considerable pipes to the cinema screen in A Star Is Born, the reigning-pop-icon playing pop-icon-in-waiting Ally. Next up in her cinematic arsenal, after serving killer looks in House Of Gucci, Gaga is about to sing on screen again – this time as an all-new take on Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips’ song-packed Joker sequel, Joker: Folie À Deux. Get ready to meet Lee – Arthur Fleck’s new partner in crime, set to put a spring in his step and a song in his heart.

For Gaga, the film’s song-and-dance numbers required a recalibration of her vocal talents. “People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is; I’m playing a character. So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee, and to not come from me as a performer,” she tells Empire in the world-exclusive Joker: Folie À Deux cover feature. And given how Phillips’ film integrates music into its milieu, Gaga had to follow suit. “How do you take music and have it just be an extension of the dialogue, as opposed to breaking into song for no conceivable reason?” she asks. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”

As a result, you’re about to hear a very different side to the Lady Gaga you know. “For me, there’s plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee,” she laughs of her singing in the film. “I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. When I breathe to sing on stage, I have this very controlled way to make sure that I’m on pitch and it’s sustained at the right rhythm and amount of time, but Lee would never know how to do any of that. So it’s like removing the technicality of the whole thing, removing my perceived art-form from it all and completely being inside of who she is.”

In Gaga’s hands, get ready for an all-new take on a fan-favourite character – one who’s thrived in Batman: The Animated Series, comic books, the DCEU, and her own animated comedy. Lee is both the Harley Quinn you know, and one you really don’t. “While there are some things that people would find familiar in her, it’s really Gaga’s own interpretation, and Scott [Silver, co-writer] and I’s interpretation,” explains Phillips. “She became the way how [Charles] Manson had girls that idolised him. The way that sometimes these [imprisoned murderers] have people that look up to them. There are things about Harley in the movie that were taken from the comic books, but we took it and moulded it to the way we wanted it to be.” Prepare for a performance that’s totally Gaga.

Read Empire’s world-exclusive cover feature on Joker: Folie À Deux – speaking to Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Todd Phillips and more about the making of their rule-breaking sequel – in the September 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 1 August. Pre-order a copy online here. Joker: Folie À Deux comes to UK cinemas on 4 October.